The demands made on internal combustion engines, in particular in motor vehicles, are increasing owing to legal regulations relating to pollutant emissions and owing to customers' requests with respect to reliability, efficient use of operating fluid, in particular fuel, and low maintenance costs. These demands can only be satisfied if malfunctions of vehicle components are reliably and accurately identified and recorded, so malfunctions may be compensated for or the vehicle components that are faulty may be repaired. For this purpose vehicle components, in particular all vehicle components relevant to exhaust gas, such as the catalyst system, lambda probe and the complete fuel system, are monitored. Low-pollutant operation is to be ensured by the monitoring measures and the driving safety maintained. This includes being able to ensure operation of the internal combustion engine under emergency conditions in the event of errors occurring and avoiding consequential damage. The driver of the motor vehicle is informed about the malfunction, so he can prompt an inspection and possibly repair in a workshop. The monitoring facility of the internal combustion engine stores information about the errors that have occurred, such as the type of error, the location of the error and the operating conditions under which the malfunction occurred. This information can be evaluated in a workshop and thus assists repair work.